Victor Perlo (May 15, 1912 – December 1, 1999) was an American Marxist economist, government functionary, and a longtime member of the governing National Committee of the Communist Party USA.

Victor Perlo was born May 15, 1912, in East Elmhurst, Queens, New York City, N.Y. Perlo was the son of ethnic Jewish parents who had both emigrated in their youth to America from the Russian Empire. His father, Samuel Perlo, was a lawyer and his mother, Rachel Perlo, was a teacher.

Perlo received his bachelor's degree from Columbia University in New York City in 1931 and master's degree in mathematics from the same school in 1933.

Late in 1932 or early in 1933, while still a student at Columbia, Perlo joined the Communist Party USA, an organization with which he was affiliated throughout his life.

Perlo married his first wife, Katherine, in 1933 and divorced in 1943. Subsequently, he married his second wife, Ellen (whose uncle was Robert Menaker), with whom he remained for the rest of his life. The couple had three children, a girl and two boys.

Perlo had varied interests, which included tennis, mountain climbing, and chess. He was also a talented pianist.

After his graduation from Columbia in 1933, Perlo went to work as a statistical analyst and assistant to a division chief at the National Recovery Administration (NRA), remaining at that post until June 1935. Perlo then moved to the Federal Home Loan Bank Board where he was an analyst for the Home Owners' Loan Corporation, establishing statistical analyses for properties mortgaged to the corporation and projecting long-term financial accounts. Perlo worked in that capacity until October 1937.

In October 1937, Perlo left government service to work in the Brookings Institution, a liberal think tank established in 1916, where he stayed as a researcher for more than two years. In November 1939, Perlo went to work in the US Department of Commerce, where he worked as a senior economic analyst in the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce.